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Morality Quotes
"Evil never dies. It just changes faces."
18
"Confusing monogamy with morality has done more to destroy the conscience of the human race than any other error."
18
"Never resist temptation: prove all things: hold fast that which is good."
18
"A little neglect may breed great mischief. ... For want of a nail the shoe was lost for want of a shoe the horse was lost for want of a horse the battle was lost for want of the battle the war was lost."
18
"The animalism of the brute nature in man is disgusting', he thought, 'but as long as it remains in its naked form we observe it from the height of our spiritual life and despise it; and - whether one has fallen or resisted - one remains what one was before. But when that same animalism hides under a cloak of poetry and aesthetic feeling and demands our worship - then we are swallowed up by it completely and worship animalism, no longer distinguishing good from evil. Then it is awful!"
18
"Do you keep silent to keep a friendship or do you try to lend your support unconditionally, even if what they are doing goes against everything you believe in? Will it be principles over friendship, morality over love?"
18
"How then to enforce peace? Not by reason, certainly, nor by education. If a man could not look at the fact of peace and the fact of war and choose the former in preference to the latter, what additional argument could persuade him? What could be more eloquent as a condemnation of war than war itself?"
18
"This is glorious!' I cried, and then i looked at the sinner by my side. He sat with his head sunk on his breast and said 'Yes', without raising his eyes, as if afraid to see writ large on the clear sky of the offing the reproach of his romantic conscience."
18
"There is no particular merit in being nice to one's fellow man... We can never establish with certainty what part of our relations with others is a result of our emotions — love, apathy, charity, or malice — and what part is predetermined by the constant power play among individuals. True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect, mankind has suffered a fundamental débâcle — a débâcle so fundamental all others stem from it."
18
"Every vice is only an exaggeration of a necessary and virtuous function."
18
"Never attempt to take your own or somebody else's life because someday you will account for that."
18
"It doesn't make you a monster to want, she said, her voice very gentle. It's what you do with it that matters."
18
"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed."
18
"If your doctrine changed for the better yet your character changed for the worse, you changed for the worse."
18
"When a moral man speaks, listen. But when immoral men speak, toss away their words like bad fruit. Truth will never shine from a heart filled with corruption and lies."
18
"I have a higher and grander standard of principle than George Washington. He could not lie; I can, but I won't."
18
"Pride that dines on vanity sups on contempt."
18
"Every criminal has a good mind conquered by the devil."
18
"Pride is the problem. Everyone wants to be right so badly they overlook the "rights" of others."
17
"If your heart, mind, and actions are selfish, they will ultimately divide you, others, or entire [establishments]. When motivation is pure and selfless, it will result in helping bring others together."
17
"Lorsen shook his head in amazement. 'You truly are disgusting.'I would be the last to disagree, but you fail to see that you are worse. No man capable of greater evil than the one who thinks himself in the right. No purpose more evil than the higher purpose. I freely admit I am a villain. That's why you hired me. But I am no hypocrite."
17
"He pointed to the money, and said:"The love of it is the root of all evil. There it lies, the ancient tempter, newly red with the shame of its latest victory--the dishonor of a priest of God and his two poor juvenile helpers in crime. If it could but speak, let us hope that it would be constrained to confess that of all its conquests this was the basest and the most pathetic."
17
"J'accuse toute violence en l'éducation d'une âme tendre, qu'on dresse pour l'honneur, et la liberté."
17
"Fear prophets, Adso, and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them."
17
"Because you have been blessed with the gift of life, it is your duty to help others. We are all responsible for one another."
17
"Good is positive. Evil is merely privative, not absolute: it is like cold, which is the privation of heat. All evil is so much death or nonentity. Benevolence is absolute and real. So much benevolence as a man hath, so much life hath he."
17
"The one who runs from his shadows sleeps with the devil at night."
17
"No one is without Christianity, if we agree on what we mean by the word. It is every individual's individual code of behavior, by means of which he makes himself a better human being than his nature wants to be, if he followed his nature only. Whatever its symbol-cross or crescent or whatever-that symbol is man's reminder of his duty inside the human race. Its various allegories are the charts against which he measures himself and learns to know what he is. It cannot teach man to be good as the textbook teaches him mathematics. It shows him how to discover himself, evolve for himself a moral code and standard within his capacities and aspirations, by giving him a matchless example of suffering and sacrifice and the promise of hope."
17
"It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving."
17
"People should avoid hatred at all costs, because not only does it affect the hater's health; it also prevents them from enjoying the goodness of love."
17
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